Speaking with #BBV, Dr Jagdish Prasad, the Director General of Health Services laments political indifference towards health as an issue. Poor implementation at state level coupled with bureaucratic delays and a medical education system that promotes profiteering is ailing India's healthcare system.

If health is not a national priority for India, blame it on political indifference, says Jagdish Prasad, Director General of Health Services (DGHS). While political apathy has pushed health low on government agenda, bureaucratic tardiness coupled with federal complexities have created a maze where implementation of health schemes more than often goes for a toss. Not surprisingly, even big-ticket health schemes fail to meet stated objectives and goals.

“If there is political will, all problems related to the country’s healthcare system can be resolved. Health is a state subject. The Central government enacts laws, but implementation rests with a state government,” said Dr Prasad on Nishane Pe.

While the centre can give direction and grants-in-aid, the onus is on the states to make health a priority and ensure proper implementation.

“State leaders must give high priority to public healthcare. Most states have not properly implemented the National Rural Health Mission (NHRM),” he added.

There is an urgent need to fix the entire medical education system, stressed Dr Prasad.

“High cost of medical education especially in the form of capitation fees charged by private medical colleges and institutes has spoiled the system. After paying capitation fee, a candidate will be more interested in recovering the money than serving the poor.”

The process of establishment of medical colleges too needs to be streamlined, said Dr Prasad.

An understanding of Online Profile Management for Oncologists, with an Indian perspective.

Covers Digitally Aware Patients and Social Networks, The Need for Online Profile Management, an understanding of Local Reputation vs Global Reputation, Tips for How to do it while avoiding the traps and describing techniques for Maximizing Online Exposure for Oncologists

This pilot has finally reached a point of success after over 5 years of turmoil. Its critical that this project is funded to scale.

Pilotitis should not get another victim, and one where the claim of success is made, something which is not the case with ober 90% of pilots globally.

How to source missing funds: They may find it prudent to look at additional value benefits which can be obtained with additional modules or applications. These are in addition to the features that were part of the pilot. The additional benefits to different departments and/or different ministries may open the doors to get the additional funds

The Medical College hospital (MCH) in Thiruvananthapuram, is a prominent healthcare institution in Kerela and attracts thousands of patients every day.

MCH has undergone a series of changes in a bid to present itself as patient-friendly with special emphasis on technology.

1. The process to improve facilities at MCH kickstarted under the government’s ‘Aardram’ mission which aims to introduce a variety of technologies that will strengthen patient infrastructure at hospitals and make them easier to consult doctors.

2. An advanced virtual queue management system has been established through which patients at Akshaya centres, through computers at taluk hospitals can take appointments of doctors at a specific time and date.

3. Instead of waiting for hours at the hospital, patients can now get virtual tokens and just arrive at the hospital at the time of their appointment. This is aimed at eliminating extra crowds at the hospital during those hours.

4. SMS messages will be sent to the patient reminding them of their doctor appointments.

5. Through the e-health system, doctors at MCH can also avail a patient’s medical information via Aadhaar. This will help multiple doctors seeing the same patient access his/her medical history resulting in a fruitful exchange of information.

6. Doctors will soon be able to record their prescriptions digitally on their computer systems which will help them better treat their patients when the latter come for the next appointment. Officials at the pharmacy can also access these records helping in better delivery of medicines.

7. For the past one month, the entire OP block of the MCH barring a floor has been colour-coded for the benefit of patients. “The OP at MCH is vast and many a time, patients find it difficult to find the right OP and the doctor they wish to consult. We have set up LED systems on each floor guiding patients to the right blocks,” Dr Jose said.

8. LED lights in blue, orange, green and red have been set up for each department of the OP.

9. There are wall paintings along with normal signboards as part of patient-friendly measures to identify key departments.

The doctors writing prescriptions in illegible handwritings are under the scrutiny of law in Uttar Pradesh now. The Lucknow bench of Allahabad court set an example by imposing fine of Rs 5,000 each on doctors writing in “poor handwriting”.

Three different cases of doctors writing in running handwriting were reported from Unnao, Sitapur and Gonda district hospitals. The injury reports of the patients were said to be “not readable”

However, the doctors defended themselves, saying the illegible handwriting was due to the extensive workload.

The court further directed principal secretary home, principal secretary medical and health and director general medical health to ensure that in the future medico reports are prepared in easy language and readable writing. The court also suggested that such reports should be computer typed instead of being handwritten.

The medico-legal report, if given clearly, can either endorse the incident as given by the eyewitnesses or can disprove the incident to a great extent. This is possible only if a detailed and clear medico-legal report is furnished by the doctors, with complete responsibility," the bench observed.

On October 3, 1978, due to the pioneering effort of Dr Subhash Mukhopadhyay and his team in Calcutta, a girl—Durga—was born through IVF. It was the second such attempt in the world, a repeat of what his English counterparts Robert G Edwards and Patrick Steptoe had achieved barely days ago, on July 25. The news boded well for thousands of infertile couples, but there was no noise around the achievement. Perhaps because the couple chose to keep mum and didn’t want themselves or the child’s image to be shaped by the manner of conception. Battling ignominy and failure to be recognised for his monumental work led him to take his life on June 19, 1981. But recognition did come his way, posthumously, and 25 years after the birth of Durga, the physician was “officially” regarded as the first doctor to perform IVF in India. Later on August 6, 1986, Dr Indira Hinduja and Dr Kusum Zaveri helped deliver—Harsha—India’s first test tube baby.

Now, State-of-the-art-technologies are making their parenthood dream of many come true

A latest Ernst & Young (E&Y) report records high prevalence of infertility affecting nearly 10-15 percent of married couples in India, of which women account for 40-50 percent. Infertility attributable to male factors is on the rise and constitutes 30-40 percent of the segment.

Only 1 percent of infertile couples in India seek treatment, says the E&Y report. It highlights the rise in the population of women in reproductive age (20-44). This proportion could go up by 14 percent between 2010 and 2020. The climb is skewed towards women aged between 30 and 44 (20 percent increase estimated between 2010 and 2020), who typically display lower fertility rates. This shifting demographic trend coupled with rising contraceptive use is likely to scale up infertility rates in India.Age has an important part to play in conception.

Tech to Rescue

The fertility treatment landscape has drastically improved over the years. The services at a fertility centre range from the simplest that involves IUI to the most advanced ones such as IVF,IMSI (intracytoplasmic morphologically selected sperm injection), ICSI (intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection) and PICSI (a new method of sperm selection for ICSI).Today any IVF specialist is lucky to possess the latest techniques to combat the disadvantage of advanced maternal age, prevent unnecessary transfer of embryos, prevent and reduce implantation failure and give quick results.

Performing genetic diagnosis prior to embryo implantation could prevent abnormal pregnancies. Various categories of hopeful mothers are advised this screening method. They are:

1. Women who suffered repeated implantation failure or recurrent pregnancy loss while undergoing IVF2. Patients aged 35 years3. Women with recurrent miscarriages after IVF4. Women with a positive history of chromosomal aneuploidies in the family or are diagnosed carriers of chromosomal abnormalities5. Or have a combination of some of the above factors

This is an excellent piece by Shillpi A Singh which came out in the New Indian Express which serves as a written documentary on how the field of IVF has evolved in India and where it will go from here. It touches upon several advances in the field today and has expert views contributed by

Why every medical practitioner across the nation writes Illegible way on prescriptions?.

No government organisation had an answer for this and how it came in to practice, but finally the stage is set to curb the practice due to a sustained campaign of a Nalgonda based pharmacist as Medical Council of India General Body had resolved to issue guidelines asking the practitioners to use only capital letters on prescription.

The pharmacist, Chilukuri Paramathma, has said that he approached the High Court, Hyderabad, for banning the usage of present style of writing as it is leading to confusion in pharmacists. Unable to understand the prescriptions, he said that there are so many instances of pharmacists giving wrong medicine to patients that even led to disasters. He explained such an instance saying that a pharmacist working with a pharmacy chain store in Vidyanagar in Hyderabad had given ‘Tegrital’ Tablet instead of ‘Trental’ tablet to a pregnant woman as he misunderstood the prescription.

The ‘Trental’ tablet was intended for better blood circulation in pregnant woman, but Tegrital tablet is meant for abortion. As she got aborted after taking the tablet, that had turned into a big issue. Mr. Paramathma had gathered such 100 tablet names looks like homonyms in English which were presented before the High Court through a Public Interest Litigation.

A two-member Bench of the High Court comprising Chief Justice Kalyan Joythi Senguptha and Justice Sanjay Kumar had taken up the case for hearing on 24, February, 2014 and issued directions asking the Medical Council of India (MCI)and other stakeholders to take appropriate action.

The MCI had decided to issue guidelines asking the doctors to write the prescriptions only in capital letters in a general body meeting held on March 28. The decision of MCI along with a draft notification has been sent for Centre’s approval on June 9 this year. Once the Centre gives it’s nod, every medical practitioner in India will have to follow the guidelines to be issued by the Centre.

The medical council and healthcare government bodies on Friday released guidelines for doctors to write prescriptions. The sweeping guidelines are a welcome relief and will help reduce errors. Also they give a push to using technology to better comply with these standards and improve overall patient care.

The new guidelines include more information about the prescribing doctor, prescribed drugs and also patient information. Important parameters like the patients’ weight and age will help pharmacists also catch any errors at their end.

Prescription rules prepared by the Indian FDA on the basis of the Drug & Cosmetics Act suggest a uniform format, and advise writing or printing Drug Names in capital letters and also generic names of drugs as much as possible.

Using prescription software with basic patient information and pre-entered drug database will increase the doctor’s productivity in preparing such prescriptions and minimize errors during writing.

Here is the first look at the actual printed guidelines as shared with Doctors

Soon, patients of Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital will not have to run from pillar to post with their entire case files to get treated. They can be paper-free when they come in for check-ups as all patient details would be available online.

A hospital management information system would be implemented at GH within a month or so, according to hospital sources.

On the first hospital visit, every patient would be registered in the system with name, photograph and basic health details.

Information recorded for each patient would include his ailment and treatment received. Subsequently, all patient details, including scans, tests and results would be updated into the database.

"The software would allow even scan copies to be uploaded and added to a patient's database, so it would be easy for the consultant to access all the data with the click of a mouse instead of poring over through different reports in a file," said a doctor.

When a patient gets registered, he will be given an identity card with an identification number. Whenever he visits any department in the hospital, he just has to show his card and number.

They would immediately access all his details.

"This is extremely helpful in the pharmacy, labs and scan centres, where sometimes patients do not know how to ask for the right test or scan and if the prescription written is illegible," said another doctor.

The hospital is likely to get around 180 computers for the system. Since GH is always congested with patients and doctors may not have time to key-in updates and details, especially during outpatient hours, they are planning to ask house surgeons and PG surgeons to help for this purpose.

A recent survey, conducted across 27 cities including Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad revealed that doctors have been struggling to deal with patients who use the internet to find out what ails them.

Making matters worse are hundreds of thousands of online forums where people discuss their ailments and symptoms, which often result in patients indulging in self-medication, and also end up arguing with doctors upon being told that their ailmentisnotevenclosetotheworsediseasestheyhad imagined, said majority of the 650 doctors who participated in the survey.

The doctors, including specialists and super specialists, termed people's increasing dependence on the internet to find medical cures and search for symptoms as a "major strain on the doctor-patient relationship".

Overloaded with information Forty-four per cent of the 650 doctors surveyed said that most of their patients were "overloaded with information", while 37 per cent doctors were of the opinion that their patients considered themselves "medical experts" after reading about the ailments on the internet.

As many as 38 per cent of the doctors surveyed said that majority of their patients who participated in online forums to discuss their ailments were "grossly misinformed" about the symptoms.

Dr Pratit Samdani, a general physician at the Breach Candy Hospital said he often comes across patients who imagine the worst after an online search of the ailments.

"One of my patients, a woman in her 30s, was convinced she was suffering from lung cancer. She had been coughing incessantly, and obviously the internet search said it was the most basic symptom of lung cancer. She assumed the worst, but it turned out to be a very minor infection," he said.

Dr Bharat Shivdasani, a cardiologist at Jaslok Hospital, said that it becomes difficult to convince patients who are loaded with "internet information". He said,"A few weeks ago,a man in his 40s visited me for consultation. He was convinced that he suffered from a heart ailment only because he was experiencing pain in left arm. When I told him that was not the case, he ended up arguing with me."

Samdani termed the internet a "medical menace", saying the woman who had assumed she was suffering from cancer insisted on undergoing a series of tests. "I spent an hour trying to convince her that she didn't need to undergo the tests. Internet cannot diagnose ailments or treat anyone," he said.

The survey, conducted by Ipsos Healthcare and Ruder Finn, an international public relations firm, aims to educate people on the dangers of 'over-information' when it comes to ailments. One such victim of medical overload, Dahisar resident Vikas Vyas, said he recently spent sleepless nights assuming the worst of diseases after searching the causes of throat pain on the internet.

The curse of internet Out of the 650 doctors surveyed, 44% said their patients were "overloaded with medical info gathered online". Thirty-seven per cent doctors said that many of their patients think of themselves as medical experts.

Fifty per cent of the doctors surveyed said internet has made their interaction with patients "difficult".

Managing time is a major issue for all professionals in today’s fast paced world. This is even more so for many doctors, especially those who work at multiple locations: Clinics, Hospitals and Medical centers. Workshops on effective time management are regularly organized at different financial and IT firms to help hard working professionals. Gyan is imparted on setting Alerts for Reminders, and To Dos for Task management and the importance of diaries, blackberries and calendar reminders is emphasized here.

Physicians have a slightly bigger problem. Their schedules are majorly dependent on set appointments with patients. While they do have other areas of concern, the majority of their daily schedules are built around patient appointments. What complicates this for a consulting doctor is that every day he may have different visiting hours at different locations. This makes Time management even more crucial for Physicians.

Mandatory Requirements for an Appointment Management System:

It should allow for different mediums of Appointment Scheduling

E.g. Via a Website, Via A Phone Call, Via SMS

It should permit Rescheduling

It should be able to handle Walk-In Patients

Besides the process, the screens should be simple – Non IT friendly users should be able to easily use it

In a bizarre move, the Medical Council of India(MCI) — the apex regulatory body of doctors and the medical practice in the country — has decided to shrink its own jurisdiction. It has reinterpreted its code of ethics regulations as being applicable only to individual doctors and not doctors' associations.

Clause 6.8 of the Code of Medical Ethics Regulation 2002 clearly states that it pertains to "code of conduct for doctors and professional association of doctors in their relationship with pharmaceutical and allied health sector industry". However, the executive committee of the new MCI in its meeting on February 18 decided that the term "association of doctors" be deleted from the clause. It went on to add that any action it took it against any association of doctors by virtue of clause 6.8 shall be nullified and that such proceedings would stand annulled.

In effect, the MCI has stated that the action it took against the Indian Medical Association (IMA) for endorsing products of Pepsi and Dabur in exchanges for crores of rupees or against the Indian Academy of Paediatrics for accepting funding from pharmaceutical companies will no longer be valid.

"It is a ridiculous position. The MCI itself had argued in an affidavit filed in the Delhi high court that what is prohibited for an individual doctor cannot be done by the doctor along with another bunch of doctors by forming an association," said Dr K V Babu, who had filed the original complaint against the IMA for endorsing products.

Endorsement is expressly forbidden by the code of ethics, which says that no doctor ought to endorse any commercial product or drug or therapeutic article. In November 2010, the MCI had initiated action against officer bearers of the IMA on the endorsement issue. When one of the office bearers challenged the removal of his name from the medical register for six months before the high court, the MCI had argued in its affidavit that "...what is not allowed to be done directly cannot be permitted to be done indirectly".

FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D., contrasted the craftsmanship and beauty of India’s Taj Mahal with recent lapses in quality by “a handful” of the country’s drug manufacturers during a recent visit there. If the comparison was meant to flatter the domestic pharma executives and regulators with whom she met, they didn’t appear to think so.

Dr. Hamburg and officials from India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare pledged cooperation in data sharing and even “medical and cosmetic product and inspections conducted by the other Participant.” That’s no small promise since India is the world’s second largest exporter of prescription and over-the-counter drugs. Yet their formal Statement of Intent conditioned such cooperation “as time and resources allow” and didn’t set specific terms.

In a conference call with reporters today, Dr. Hamburg said implementing the statement was a five-year commitment “already under way” as both countries “have already embarked upon some cross-training activities and started to identify some critical areas for future activities together, so I think progress will be made.”

Indian drugmaker Ranbaxy has come under repeated FDA scrutiny. It agreed last year to pay a $500 million fine for safety and record-keeping violations. More recently, it urged Dr. Hamburg to lift the FDA’s consent decree. Extended as of January, this decree effectively bans four of Ranbaxy’s Indian plants from exporting active pharmaceutical ingredients to the United States. Although Ranbaxy contended that it needed the export activity to fund FDA-sought quality improvements, Dr. Hamburg declined the company’s request.

Domestic Generics

According to the All India Chemists and Druggists Association data reported by Indian newspaper The Economic Times, Mumbai-based Glenmark Pharmaceuticals impacted the Rs 3,000 crore ($483.7 million) Indian diabetes drug market long dominated by multinationals last year. Glenmark racked up Rs 16 crore ($2.58 million) in eight months for its Zitamed and Zita generic versions of sitagliptin

These generics sold 30% cheaper than the Januvia and Janumet branded drugs of market leader Merck & Co., which generated more than $5.8 billion in combined global 2013 sales for Merck and are the subject of a patent dispute between the companies.

Through court decisions and regulatory actions, Indian officials have pressed foreign-based multinationals for lower-cost drugs. These multinationals, however, have argued that Indian actions hinder their ability to do business selling innovative if costlier drugs.

Patent Questions

India’s Patent Office sent shivers through the biopharma industry in 2012 when it revoked the exclusive patent rights held by Bayer for cancer drug Nexavar, and awarded the nation’s first-ever compulsory license to a domestic maker of a much cheaper generic. Industry cringed again last year when India’s Supreme Court rejected patent protection for Novartis’ blockbuster cancer drug Glivec, as the drug faces a 2015 expiration of its first U.S. patent.

The patent decisions, Bagla explained, reflect Indian compliance with the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) of the World Trade Organization, of which India is a founding member.

“Western companies need to factor this situation among the risks of doing business in India,” Bagla emphasized. “Some of our clients are limiting their involvement in India due to this. Others are a taking a measured approach to what products and technologies they bring. Very few are walking away from India completely.”

Legal and Regulatory Moves

Last year, the Indian Supreme Court ordered a nationwide halt to clinical trials for 157 new chemical entities, citing the need for stricter ethical standards after seven girls died in a Phase IV trial of an HPV vaccine carried out on children unaware they were under study. The court also shifted responsibility for trials from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization headed by Dr. Singh, ordering India’s Health Secretary personally responsible for new-drug clinical trials.

As part of its plans to propagate the benefits of traditional Indian form of medicine, leading Ayurvedic healthcare company Dabur India Ltd today launched 'Ayurveda Samvad', India's first Ayurvedic Medical Journal.

The quarterly journal was unveiled by Shailaja Chandra, General Secretary, AYUSH, Government of India.

The quarterly publication will cover detailed information on various clinical trials being conducted on Ayurvedic medicines.

Announcing the launch, Dabur India Ltd Ayurveda R&D Head Dr J L N Sastry said the journal would cover the holistic approach on Ayurveda. It would popularise Ayurveda and reach out to the doctor fraternity to propagate messages on the Ayurvedic way of life to manage health and diseases.

The journal will feature articles covering original scientific studies in the field of Ayurvedic medicines with direct clinical significance, addressing health care issues and public health policy.

As a scientist at the New Delhi-based Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Dr. Anurag Agrawal often ponders the links between genes and lung disease. Could there be a connection between height, weight and a propensity to develop asthma? How might diet affect chronic obstructive pulmonary disease?

In the winter of 2013, he started thinking: What if there was a way to use shipping containers to collect and mine people’s health records, thereby gaining insights into disease to provide treatment?

One such container eventually made its way to a village in Uttar Pradesh. Here, villagers could gain access to a paramedic, deposit blood samples and have a qualified doctor advise them by monitor. They could submit a cardiogram, have a doctor look at it within days and, if necessary, sound an alert.

The IGIB is one of 39 state-funded Council for Scientific and Industrial Research laboratories. As a government establishment, it had limited scope to expand. But five years ago, IGIB partnered with Narayana Health (NH), a renowned Indian multi-specialty hospital chain, and the American IT giant Hewlett-Packard, to install more than 40 such ‘eHealth’ centres in various parts of the country.

The NH network now uses these shipping containers as part of its rural healthoutreach, which includes electronic medical records (EMR), biometric patient identification and integrated diagnostic devices. The HP cloud-enabled technology allows for the monitoring of clinical and administrative data.

The Indian Air Force has launched a mobile health (mhealth) app to provide health information to the users, including first-aid and other health and nutritional topics

The 'MedWatch' was launched on 8 October on the occasion of IAF's 85th anniversary and was conceived by the doctors of IAF and developed in-house by Directorate of Information Technology (DIT)

"'MedWatch' will provide correct, Scientific and authentic health information to air warriors and all citizens of India.

The app comprises a host of features like information on basic First Aid, health topics and nutritional facts; reminders for timely Medical Review, vaccination and utility tools like Health Record Card, BMI calculator, helpline numbers and web links

The 'MedWatch' is first such health app to be built by any of the three armed forces.

The World Bank came forward to fund for the development of 7,500 health sub-centres as electronic sub-centres (e-sub-centres). As part of the programme, e-health records would be maintained in all the e-sub-centres apart from extending telemedicine facility.

Explaining the government’s efforts in improving health services in the State, Mr. Naidu suggested the visiting team to provide expertise to fill the gaps in medical and health services. The government has introduced IT-enabled health services. However, introduction of some more global practices was required to further improve the services.

The government has been releasing health bulletin every month and sufficient data was available, he said, adding, the WB can extend its cooperation in research and innovation.

Electronic records to be maintained apart from extending telemedicine facility

InnoHEALTH is a movement to create a mutually beneficial knowledge platform for all, that would also provides a unique opportunity to young innovators to showcase their products and services to the global community.

The event brings everyone interested in healthcare innovations in a common platform from across the globe. The idea is to create an inclusive ecosystem of healthcare experts, technologists, policy makers, young innovators and all stakeholders, that would assist in the faster adoption of innovations for the betterment of the community.

InnoHEALTH 2018 will be held at Gurgaon, Delhi on 5th and 6th of October 2018

Two crore people in India develop knee problems that may require an implant. However, only around one lakh patients undergo implants while the rest cannot afford the expensive treatment.

The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has asked the sellers to upload the prices of the implants on their websites. NPPA has issued the order for ensuring that the sellers comply with the price fixation. The authority had also fixed the price of the implants on August 16.

"All manufacturers, importers, distributors, stockists, hospitals, nursing homes and clinics must display on 'home page' of their website, the MRP or the price of the knee implant system at which they are charging or billing the patients, along with the brand name, specifications, and names of the manufacturing and marketing company, within three working days from issuing this office memorandum," stated Kalyan Nag, Adviser, NPPA in the order.

He was speaking at the inauguration of "Medical and Wellness Tourism Summit -2014" here that was organised by PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

According to Dewan, these incentives would also be extended to NGOs for the promotion of eco-tourism.

Without elaborating much, he said these incentives would comprise "part reimbursement of expenses, undertaken by tour operators and market facilitators to propagate medical tourism in India and overseas".

Promising ‘extraordinary’ steps in the health sector by the Modi government, Union Minister Harsh Vardhan today said a mass movement will be built for implementing various policies and programmes in the coming months. ‘I can say with confidence that our government under the leadership of Narendra Modi is committed to health sector in the country and intends to do extraordinary work in this field,’ the Health Minister said.

In this regard, he called for building a ‘mass-movement’ involving everyone in the policies and programmes so as to make India a healthy society. The Minister said everyone should take pride in the fact that India today is a polio-free country.

The government has earmarked Rs 39,237.82 crore for the health sector in this year’s general budget. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had also promised that the government would take up on priority basis initiatives such as providing free drugs and diagnostic services while aiming to ensure ‘Health for All’.

He had also announced earmarking of Rs 500 crore to set up four more AIIMS-like institutes. Both Vardhan and Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan were attending the foundation day celebration of International Vaish Federation which was inaugurated by Tamil Nadu Governor K Rosaiah. The Speaker called upon the Vaish community to work for the welfare of the citizens. Men and women should commit themselves to the betterment of society, she said.

Improve healthcare services in rural areas

The former minister Ghulam Nabi Azad tried hard to convince docs to spend some time in rural areas without much success and Dr Harsh Vardhan is walking down the same road, perhaps convinced that it’ll improve healthcare services. Replying in Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha, he said the central government would create a mechanism to ensure docs are available in rural dispensaries and centres. ‘One way to do it, which will be feasible and acceptable to all, is that during the PG courses, medical students can be asked to spend a fixed duration in rural health centres,’ Harsh Vardhan said.Malaria and dengue prevention

The minister asked all states to take malaria and dengue prevention measures on a war footing and hoped to make a new beginning in battling these ailments. ‘Dengue and malaria strikes with sickening regularity every year resulting in many deaths. Prevention of this tragedy is easy only if the prevention protocol is implemented with commitment,’ he said. ‘Let us make a new beginning. Let us not be complacent if the number of victims this year is less than last year’s. We must aim for zero incidences within two to three years,’ he said. He believes that 80% success rate is feasible if well-known preventive measures are implemented.

Excellent use of technology (eCommerce) to bring Patient Education and Awareness into the limelight. I checked out this link and found something for each specialization. Hope to see more and more of such examples in the coming months.

Heart diseases are one of the leading causes of death in India. 80 per cent of the Indian population succumbs to a heart problem. If you are running helter-skelter for the best heart hospitals in India, ‘check-in’ either of these top cardiac care hospitals in India.

Do you still have a family physician? - In the time of super-specialisation in medicine and healthcare, patients seem to bemoan the scarcity of the family doctor who cured their sniffles without making them undergo a battery of tests. Where is the general physician now?

Sorry situation

India produces nearly 42,000 MBBS doctors every year. But of these, only 8,000 to 10,000 take up general medical practice as a profession

India does not offer an MD in family medicine. Of close to 8,000 seats that are reserved for a 3-year PG course offered by the Diplomate of National Board, only 5–6% of seats are allotted to family medicine

Another reason general practice is on the decline is that fresh MBBS graduates avoid practicing family medicine as a career because it pays less

The days of doctors’ prescriptions being parallel lines of illegible scrawls punctuated by the odd circle to indicate dosage, may soon be a thing of the past.

The executive committee of the Medical Council of India has decided that doctors should only write prescriptions in capital letters.

If the prescription also includes other remarks such as dietary advice or recommended tests, then at least the drug names and dosages should be written clearly in capitals, the committee has ruled.

Letters to this effect will soon be sent to all medical colleges, MCI chairperson Dr Jayshreeben Mehta told The Indian Express Monday.

“The executive committee has just passed this proposal. The committee unanimously felt that drug names and dosages are at times not clearly written in prescriptions causing a lot of confusion among both chemists and patients. That is why we have decided that all prescriptions should be in capital letters. Once the order comes out, it will be sent to all medical colleges,” Mehta said.

Committee members, sources said, made a strong pitch for all-caps prescriptions on the ground that misreading even a single letter can alter the name of a drug dramatically and lead to disastrous consequences for the patient.

Doctors have welcomed the move but health ministry sources said they had no information about the decision.

However, such techniques while they seem like common-sense, are typical of the jugaad mentality prevalent in India which result in postponing the impact of problems rather than working towards fixing them.

Its high time Indian Doctors start using e-prescriptions. There are a wide variety of ways to do that, on a variety of devices, and available at prices from almost nothing upwards.

Millions of Indians suffering chronic pain will get better access to pain medicines following changes in India’s drug law, Human Rights Watch said today. On February 21, 2014, the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of parliament, approved amendments to the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (the Drug Act) that the lower house had approved a day earlier.

The amendments eliminate archaic rules that obligated hospitals and pharmacies to obtain four or five licenses, each from a different government agency, every time they wanted to purchase strong pain medicines. As Human Rights Watch documented in a 2009 report, “Unbearable Pain: India's Obligation to Ensure Palliative Care,” this resulted in the virtual disappearance of morphine, an essential medicine for strong pain, from Indian hospitals, including from most specialized cancer centers.

“The revised Drug Act is very good news for people with pain in India,” said Diederik Lohman, senior health researcher at Human Rights Watch. “These changes will help spare millions of people the indignity of suffering needlessly from severe pain.”

Patients who experience severe pain without access to adequate treatment face enormous suffering. Like victims of torture, these patients have often told Human Rights Watch that the pain was intolerable and that they would do anything to make it stop. Many said that they saw death as the only way out and some said they had become suicidal.

The amendments to the Drug Act give the central government authority to regulate so-called “narcotic drugs,” require a single license to procure morphine and other strong opioid medications, and charge one government agency, the state drug controller, with enforcement. The government introduced the amendments to the Drug Act in 2012.

The couple, unaware that Hiranandani did not allow any other service provider to collect stem cells, had made an arrangement with LifeCell International. They had paid an advance of Rs 60,000 for the banking, that lasts up to 21 years. A complaint was lodged in June 2012, after which a probe was ordered by the Competition Commission of India (CCI).

Hiranandani's refusal came when the couple went to seek permission to allow the LifeCell representative to collect the stem cell on the day the baby was born. Stem cells must be collected shortly after a baby is born. Hiranandani cited its tie-up with Cryobank for denying entry to another company representative on its premises. The couple tried to reason with the hospital and then decided to shift to SevenHills Hospital, Marol, for the delivery.

The body, while penalizing the company 4% of its annual turnover of the last three years, said the hospital should behave ethically towards patients. It said the hospital's arrangement was based more on a commission model rather than competition and that was "against the spirit of health services". CCI found that Cryobank was paying the hospital Rs 20,000 for every patient who opted for stem cell banking. This practice is common in the industry.

The industry hailed CCI's decision. "Patients deserve to be given a fair choice. The industry is new and such pacts can hamper its growth," said Meghnath Roy Chowdhry, secretary, Association ofStem Cell Banks of India (ASBI). Gynecologists said most city hospitals affiliate more than one player though the practice may be different for nursing homes. "Each company may have something better to offer. As doctors we only explain the benefits and disadvantages of storing stem cells, but beyond that the choice is with the patients," said Dr Suchitra Pandit, president, Federation of Obstetric and Gynecological Societies of India.

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